RoboGuard

the mobile virtual guard

A joined project by the VUB AI-lab together with Periphere and the IMEC, financed by the IWT.

Overview

The main goal of the project is to develop a demonstrator of RoboGuard, a commercial virtual guard. This robot allows remote monitoring through a mobile platform using onboard cameras and sensors. It will be marketed by Periphere, a SME which already offers complete Web-based security solutions, so the RoboGuard supplements Periphere's exisiting range of products.

The project intends to develop an affordable technology infrastructure that reduces the burden caused by the many false alarms. This will be done by giving alarm monitoring rooms access to camera images enabling them to take qualified reactions. Cost reduction and greater security should convince companies to migrate to this new security architecture.

Background

More and more companies are connected permanently to the Internet. This enables a performant and permanent communication between an alarm monitoring central and the company that needs to be monitored. This is realized using the existing data networks, avoiding the need for specific communication channels or dial in points for the alarm handling.

Instead of using a multitude of cameras and expensive cabling to achieve the camera monitoring, we offer a mobile security robot. This mobile robot should in case of an alarm by the traditional alarm system move to the place where the alarm was generated. The guard at the alarm monitoring central or whoever receiving the alarm (ex. owner) will be able to visualize the images generated by the robot from within a web browser. The robot is operated remotely by the guard in the alarm monitoring central.

The robot transmits the information it generates through wireless Ethernet to the data network of the company. Through the Internet, with the option of a VPN (Virtual Private Network), the images and sensor data transmitted by the robot are visualized to either alarm monitoring rooms or at another location by an authorized person.

The use of a mobile robot not only generates a cost reduction, it also has the benefit of not violating peoples privacy as it cannot be done unnoticed, and it has a deterring effect on whoever entered the place in an illegal way.

more to come...